January 14, 2019

Cheap blood test could predict a heart attack ten years in advance

The following link is an article written in The Times on Monday 14 January 2019 by Health Correspondent Kat Lay.

This is an interesting new usage of a blood test that has been around a long time. Hitherto, it was used specifically to confirm a diagnosis of a heart attack but the new NICE guidelines have sanctioned a new application for this blood test, namely the identification of seemingly healthy individuals who may be at high risk of a heart attack. The importance of troponin is that it is an enzyme that is only released due to heart muscle cell death. This being the case, its clear that a healthy individual should not have elevated troponin levels in his bloodstream.

Here at the Private Harley Street Clinic, we specialise in the latest cutting edge technology with regard to diagnostics in medicine. Prevention is better than cure so we have formulated the world’s most advanced health screen that goes much further than just blood tests.

Take for example, this precise issue of the threat of heart attacks, while blood tests such as this troponin test can give you an indication that you may be at risk, requiring further investigation. As a starting point, within the community, any test that potentially reduces cardiac mortality should be welcomed but lets dig deeper into the diagnostic process...The troponin test simply tells you that you may be at risk, the whole diagnostic process still remains to be done... Here at the Private Harley Street Clinic, we perform the definitive test that tells you the current route map within your coronary arteries by doing a non invasive CT Coronary angiogram that creates a 3D reconstruction of your coronary vessels. This gives the definitive answer to your risk of a cardiac event and is an example of our no stone unturned approach to preventative medicine.

We offer three separate health assessments to suit each individual’s pocket. If you are serious about having a definitive health assessment that truly addresses and answers the vital questions about whether you are at risk of cancer, heart disease or any other major disease, get in touch here to enquire about our Health Assessment.

You can read extracts from the article below, or click on the link above to read in its entirety.

Doctors could be able to identify middle-aged patients heading for a heart attack ten years before it happens by using a test that costs a few pounds.

High-sensitivity troponin testing scans blood for a protein released by the heart muscle when it is damaged.

It is already used in most A&E departments to check whether patients complaining of chest pain have had a heart attack but it has now been approved as a predictive test.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has included it in a programme aimed at getting promising new technologies into the NHS more quickly. Experts said that it could give patients a wake-up call to improve their lifestyle and provide a boost to the accuracy of the midlife MoT offered to people over 40.

At present predictions rely on details about lifestyle, age and weight to determine the odds of someone having a heart attack within ten years. Nick Mills, a cardiologist and researcher at the British Heart Foundation’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh, who has led trials of the tests, said that troponin levels could be used as “a barometer of heart health” in a more direct way than current screening tools.

He said: “The technology to measure troponin in the bloodstream has got so good that it is no longer just useful for measuring in people with large amounts of injury to the heart. It can still do that, and very well, but now it can measure troponin in everybody it is telling us about more than whether you have had a heart attack or not. It is telling us about your heart health more generally.

He also encouraged patients to attend their midlife MoTs. Last month statistics showed that fewer than half of those eligible in England had taken up the offer, which is made every five years to people aged 40 to 74.

“Even if this isn’t yet part of everyone’s health check, it perhaps will be in the future,” he said, adding that checks were still useful for spotting heart problems early.